Patricia Swann drove the sleek, top of the line car on a deserted road in the dead of night.
The whole time asking herself why she had shared what she had believed was some harmless gossip with her father that she had heard from his secretary.
She had honestly believed it to be just one more of many crank callers that the institute had from people who had nothing better to do than make nuisances of themselves.
The claims that her father, the reclusive Doctor Virgil Swann, could help with a missing person wasn't exactly original.
Deciding against the last of the battery acid disguised as coffee she had purchased at her last rest stop, her stomach having already made it's displeasure clear, she looked to the seat beside her to check that the lead lined container was still sealed.
It supposedly held a rock not found on earth.
Fighting exhaustion, Patricia mused on exactly how she had gotten herself into all of this.
Years ago, her father had found a signal originating from deep space. After years of work he had managed to decrypt it and make sense of it.
It was a message from another world.
He had devoted his life to his self appointed mission of better living through communication.
And here was proof of life coming from another galaxy, reaching out to anyone who would hear. Asking that someone take care of their child.
He had heard and had responded the best way he knew how.
He had gathered together powerful people to form a group that could best anticipate what would be coming.
The Traveller.
Patricia had scoffed at the fantasy story her father had told, believing it to be an elaborate hoax or some sort of practical joke. Until one look from Bridgette, his closest and most trusted confidant, had quickly dispelled the notion, making the words strike home.
Like a meteor shower.
The meteor shower that had hit the town of Smallville years ago.
When the Traveller had arrived.
She had noticed how he seemed to become more animated as he spoke of the traveller.
Whom he had met face to face two years ago.
It had been the catalyst for so many things.
He had seemed to give up his recluse status and actually started to take an interest in the world around him again.
He accepted guest lecturer invitations from several colleges.
In the last year his physical therapy, which had increased in frequency, had been showing signs of improvement in his condition. He could feel her hand when she placed it on his. He could move his fingers and toes ever so slightly, he even joked that he was going to re-learn to tap his fingers to annoy people the moment he regained enough dexterity.
Dad was excited.
Patricia had been very young at the time, but she remembered how he had been before his accident, always on the move, claiming he did his best thinking that way. Whether it was rock climbing, horse riding, swimming or even hang gliding.
He couldn't even sit still through a movie for crying out loud!
His lectures at M.I.T. were legendary for the hell they were on students neck muscles from all his pacing from one side of the stage to the other.
When Bridgette had told her about the accident, she had been terrified. The thought of her father not moving was manifestly unfair and just plain wrong.
So to see him like this was nothing short of miraculous.
It was like the years had been stripped away.
But something had happened. This Traveller, this child of another world had disappeared. And the couple that had taken him in and raised him as their own weren't doing too well either.
One had been frantically searching for him, desperate for any news from any who had seen even a glimpse of him.
The other was lying in a hospital bed, comatose.
By the time the multiple messages finally reached him, three months had passed.
Patricia didn't know if she believed what her father had told her. But she did know what she had seen with her own two eyes.
She believed his look of panic was genuine when she mentioned the name 'Kent'.
She believed that whoever this traveller was, he gave her father hope. And she wouldn't let anything take that away.
She believed him when he said he would go to Smallville himself to help. He hadn't left New York in years.
So here she was driving in the dead of night, to the town that google maps forgot, with bad coffee and a space rock in her car, fighting exhaustion. All to help a desperate mother find her son.
If I ever find this town. Heck, I'd settle for a sign that I'm heading in the right direction about now.
A flash of lightning made her veer off the road and into one of the unending cornfields before she hit the brakes.
It wasn't until the car came to a complete stop that she realised she could see something.
"Well, there we go." Grabbing a light, she stepped out to get a better look.
To her surprise she found herself staring at the sight of a man rising to his feet.
A really naked man.
"Huh."
